Stargate: Everlasting
by Shane Enochs
Summary: Atlantis is back on earth, perhaps permanently. On General O'Neill's recommendation, General Landry assigns Colonel John Sheppard to lead SG-1 while Mitchell and Vala are in the Ori's home galaxy trying to make peace. One man down, Sheppard chooses a scientist from Area 51 to complete his team. And out there, somewhere, a new enemy awaits...
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate or any of its characters, places, alien races, etc._

Colonel John Sheppard stood at attention before General Landry. The last time they had met, Sheppard ignored a direct order and took a puddle jumper through the Stargate. To say that they weren't on the best of terms would have been an understatement.

"And let me be perfectly clear," Landry said, raising out of his seat and leaning on his desk. "If it wasn't for General O'Neill, I wouldn't have let you step foot back onto this base. In fact, I'd like nothing more than to see you court-martialed. But General O'Neill believes that you would be a great asset to the SGC, so I'm willing to give you a chance."

"Thank you, sir."

"I've assigned you to temporarily assume Colonel Mitchell's duties on SG-1. He and Vala will be off world for a few weeks in the Ori's home galaxy along with six other SG teams. Daniel Jackson and Teal'c will be staying here, so you'll only need to choose one other member. Good luck, Colonel."

* * *

"Are you kidding me?" Rodney McKay said without looking up from the computer screen. "I know you're itching to go out and fight bad guys, but my main concern is getting Atlantis operational again so we can get back to Pegasus."

"Listen, Rodney, that may be further in the future than you think. Woolsey says that the IOA wants Atlantis here until the guys at Area 51 get the orbital defense satellites up and running. The Wraith took out Earth's only defense against alien ships. We're sitting ducks without Atlantis."

"Well how long will that be?"

Sheppard shrugged. "More than half of Atlantis personnel have already been reassigned elsewhere. Teyla and Ronon have already decided to hitch a ride with Carter whenever she takes the _Hammond _to Pegasus."

Rodney stopped working. "They haven't said anything to me."

Whoops, Sheppard though. "I'm sure they were getting around to it. There's a lot going on."

"Yeah, well there's a lot more that's going to go on if I can't fix these power conduits." He began typing furiously again. "There's a damaged conduit somewhere in the east pier. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason a ton of power is being routed there. Since we need all the power we can spare to keep the city cloaked-"

"It becomes a big problem," Sheppard finished.

"Exactly."

* * *

"I'm a medical doctor," Carson Beckett said, picking up various instruments and scanners and putting them into boxes. "I have no business going through the Stargate unless there's an emergency."

"But I know you." Sheppard was grasping at straws. He had already asked half a dozen people from Atlantis, and they had all turned him down. Carson was the last person he was comfortable asking, and also the last person that would ever accept.

"Aye, and you also know how I tend to make things worse."

"Not true. You've been invaluable countless times over the years."

Carson stopped and faced Sheppard. "I'm going back to Pegasus, Colonel. There's still a lot of work to be done there. I can't just leave those people to the plague that I helped create, can I?"

* * *

Sheppard buried his head into his hands. For the past two days, he, Daniel, and Teal'c had interviewed dozens of candidates for the team. Most of them were military, but toward the end Sheppard began bringing in more and more civilians. None impressed him. There wasn't a Rodney, Teyla, or Ronon in the bunch.

"Maybe you should tell us what you're actually looking for," Daniel suggested, clearly agitated by being chained to the long oak table.

"I don't know," Sheppard said. "I'm looking for that 'wow' factor, you know? All of these people are just so… boring."

"These people are the best at what they do," Daniel said. "Any one of them would be a great fit."

"Really? Like Shawn Flint, the botanist who thinks a good time is picking flowers on other worlds? Or Lieutenant Graves who has never even been off world or in any type of combat? No, guys, there's gotta be someone out there that's a better fit."

Daniel snapped his fingers. "I've got it. Dr. Natasha Wile. She works at Area 51. We met her a few times whenever we would bring back advanced technology. She went to MIT and is incredibly brilliant, John. I mean she's on-par with Rodney McKay."

That's a big statement, Sheppard thought. "Well, let's get her in here."

* * *

"Dr. Wile, I see here that you did a stint aboard the _Odyssey_."

Tasha Wile wasn't at all what Sheppard had expected. For one, she was young. Very young. She looked like she would easily fit in with a bunch of high school kids. There was no way that she could have been more than twenty years old. But that wasn't the most striking thing about her. There was a stillness to her. She was one of those people who would never stand out in a crowd, even if it was a crowd of two. Regardless of who you would put next to her, you would always notice that other person before you noticed her.

"Yes, for about two weeks. I was assigned to study the Asgard computer core."

"Did you get a chance to see any combat?"

"Oh, uh no. The Odyssey was actually in orbit at the time while repairs were being completed."

Sheppard leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Daniel jumped in. "Were you able to learn much from the core?"

Tasha nodded. "Quite a bit actually. It's very user friendly."

Daniel laughed. That's just what Sam had said about it. "If you could only present one thing from the core that you learned, what would it be?"

There was no hesitation. "The Asgard were attempting to use nanites to fix their genetic problems. In fact, that process is still going on."

All at once, Daniel's mouth dropped, Sheppard's eyes opened, and Teal'c's eyebrow raised. Daniel leaned forward. "Excuse me?"

Tasha suddenly felt very much like she had said something wrong. She spoke slowly. "I believe that's what they were doing. That's how the holographic interface explained it."

"Wait a minute," Sheppard said. "Are you telling me that the Asgard were using replicators?"

She immediately understood. "Oh, no. Not at all. Well…" She rubbed her face. "Kinda, except they were closer to the Pegasus version. I've read a couple of Dr. McKay's reports on the nanites that the Ancients developed to fight the Wraith. From what I understand, if they were inside a biological organism, they would heal almost any injury, right?"

Sheppard nodded. "Yeah, they could heal you from just about anything." His mind went to Elizabeth Weir, but he shook the thought away.

Tasha was nodding. "Then yes, the nanites that the Asgard developed seem very similar."

"You said that the process is going on even now," said Teal'c.

"Yes, I believe so. Two Asgard, Thor and Heimdall, set up a facility on a planet in a small galaxy neighboring Ida. From what they could tell, no advanced races have evolved in that galaxy yet so they thought it would be a good choice. Anyway, they made a copy of all of the Asgard consciousnesses and programmed the nanites to construct new bodies for them based on the DNA samples they took from one of their ancestors that they found in stasis."

The three men looked at each other, then back to the young woman. Daniel spoke. "Are you telling me that the Asgard aren't actually extinct?"

Tasha shifted in her seat, then nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

General Landry sat behind his desk as Daniel and Sheppard explained what they had learned from Dr. Wile. His blank expression gave nothing away.

"And I think we should go look for them," Daniel concluded.

Landry leaned back in his chair and interlocked his fingers over his stomach. "How are you going to find them?"

"Well, I would guess that they left the location in the computer core. Why would they let us know what they were doing without including a way of finding them again?"

The General stood. "While I share your enthusiasm, we have no way of getting there. The _Daedalus _and the _Apollo_ are setting up a base on the edge of the Pegasus galaxy. If we are going to continue to have a military presence in Pegasus, we need to have a base where the ships can be repaired, especially since Atlantis is here now. The _Hammond _is transporting supplies and personnel, and we can't allow the _Odyssey _to leave the galaxy." He shook his head. "Maybe in a few months…"

"General-"

"In the meantime," Landry said, cutting him off, "you have a mission. We've found what looks to be some sort of research facility on P3X-492. I want SG-1 to go and check it out."

* * *

A clunk reverberated through the floor of the gateroom as the Stargate began to spin. Tasha had seen pictures and videos of the Stargate, but they couldn't begin to prepare her for actually being in front of it. It was huge and power emanated from it in a way that she couldn't describe. She watched each chevron lock into place and wondered if she had made the right decision. Probably too late to have buyer's remorse now, she guessed.

"Chevron seven is locked!"

The event horizon mushroomed out, and then settled peacefully back into the vertical, shimmering puddle.

The four of them ascended the platform. Daniel and Teal'c stepped through, while Sheppard stayed back with Tasha. "First time through?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "I've read about it, though."

John grinned. "Nothing to it."

"Right." She stood only a foot away from the event horizon and could smell the tang of ozone. "Here we go." Tasha stepped through the Stargate and the floor fell away from her. She was in free fall, twisting around through icy-nothingness, then suddenly she felt herself ascend at an impossible angle that should have crushed her and-

Tasha stepped into a dark room. Sheppard was suddenly there with a steady hand on her shoulder. Teal'c and Daniel were already off the ramp, shining flashlights around the vast area. A MALP was also there, some ways away. "What a rush," she said.

"Never gets old," Sheppard said with a grin. "Let's check it out."

"We're in some kind of a museum," Daniel said, walking back toward them. "It looks like they've collected artifacts from several different races, too. There's even a Goa'uld Death Glider in here."

"I have found one as well, Colonel Sheppard," Teal'c said, returning behind Daniel.

"Sounds like we've got a race of hoarders," Sheppard joked. "Alright, fan out. Let's see if we can find a way out of here."

Tasha was surprised to see a few alien technologies that she was familiar with: a Goa'uld sarcophagus and zat'nik'tel, an Ori staff weapon, and even an Ancient drone. Just when she began spinning wild theories as to how they could have nabbed all of these things, Colonel Sheppard's voice crackled over the radio.

"Found a door. Look for my light."

Upon exiting, Tasha immediately realized that they hadn't been in a museum at all, but some sort of storage facility. There seemed to be a vast grid of such buildings for as far as she could see. "What is this place?"

Sheppard chewed on his bottom lip. "I don't know, but I don't like it. This place is huge, and it looks like these buildings go on for miles. There's a good chance that we'll never finding this building again if we start searching other ones. Let's go back and get a light surveillance drone."

SG-1 slowly made their way back to the Stargate, making a point of checking out the various objects in the room. Tasha couldn't guess as to the purpose of most of them, but took photos from various angles of each to analyze later.

"Dial it up, Daniel," Sheppard said.

Daniel stepped up and tapped on one of the symbols. Tasha saw a confused look on his face as he began pushing various other symbols as well.

"Uhh, John. We have a problem."

"What?"

Daniel knocked on the device. It made a hollow sound. "I think it's plastic…"


	3. Chapter 3

"That's a dirty trick." Colonel Sheppard kicked the fake DHD.

"Yes, but the question is why." Daniel moved around, sliding his hand against the smooth surface looking for hidden compartments. There were none.

"Perhaps it is some kind of trap," Teal'c suggested.

"Pretty lousy trap," Sheppard said. He motioned around the room. "They gave us a warehouse full of weapons."

"If I find some kind of energy source or generator of some kind," said Tasha, "we could dial the gate manually."

Sheppard thought for a moment, then nodded his head. The four of them split off into two teams, and they went aisle by aisle through the warehouse looking at the various technologies stacked unceremoniously on shelves and the floor.

Two hours later, both teams came met in the middle. Though neither team had found anything that seemed like a generator, Daniel held a small object in his hand that looked like a white key fob. He tossed it to Sheppard, and it began to glow softly. Startled, John nearly dropped the device. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure, but now we know it's Ancient. I'm hoping it's some kind of remote control for the Stargate."

John turned the square over in his hand. There were no buttons or screens. He tapped various spots on it randomly, but it refused to give up its secrets. "Kinda useless," he determined.

"We know that there's a mental component to a lot of ancient technology. Try concentrating," Tasha offered.

Sheppard closed his eyes. He visualized where they were in the room. Then suddenly he was looking at the warehouse from above, and in his mind's eye he continued to move upward, able to see more and more of the landscape. The warehouses did go on for miles, and each seemed to be of similar shape and size to the others. Their warehouse seemed to be in the very center of the grid. Finally, he began to see a city that surrounded the huge grid. He began to wonder how far of a walk they had in front of him, but he didn't have to wonder long. In his mind, a distance measurement came up, plotting a course west into the city. Eight kilometers.

John's eyes opened. He stared at the device for a moment, then up at three other faces staring at him.

"Well?" Daniel asked.

"I wonder why there aren't any of these in Atlantis; it would have been handy as hell."

"What does it do?"

"You can get an aerial view. I could see all the way to the outer edges of this place. It's surrounded by what looked like a city. Pack up. Let's go see if the locals can help us."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Daniel asked. "I mean we don't know anything about the people here. How do you know that they'll help us?"

"I don't, but I do know that there's nothing in this room that's going to help us. We don't know how long a day is on this world, but from what I could tell, it's sometime in the evening. I'd rather walk into the city during the daytime than at night."

Daniel frowned, but nodded. The four of them packed up their gear and headed outside.


End file.
